The European Union (EU) has its origins in 1951 when Belgium, France, (West)
Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Treaty
of Paris, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC),
which called for the free circulation of coal, iron, and steel and the related
workers and capital.

Both the number of member states and the scope of the organization have
expanded over the years. Today there are twenty-five member states in the
EU: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined in 1973; Greece became
a member in 1981; Portugal and Spain joined in 1986; Austria, Finland, and
Sweden became members in 1995; and the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia,
Lithuania, Hungary, Malta , Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia joined on May
1, 2004. The countries of the EU have agreed to cooperate in many areas of
trade, social policy and foreign policy, and 12 out of the 25 share a common
currency--the Euro.

The EU is different from other international organizations because the member states have delegated sovereignty to common institutions representing the interests of the EU as a whole. The EU Home Page includes information about current events, an overview of the organization, and selected documents. EU Press Room is a good source of up-to-the-minute information about EU activities.

The Main EU Bodies

The European
Parliament is a directly elected body which has legislative, budgetary
and supervisory power. The Parliament adopts legislation in conjunction
with the Council
of the European Union
in a procedure known as “co-decision.” The Council
of the European Union is made up of one representative at ministerial
level from each Member State. Its responsibilities include legislation
(in co-decision with the European Parliament), economic policy, budgetary
authority (along with the Parliament), and common foreign and security
policy. At least twice a year (generally in June and December)the heads
of state of all the fifteen member states of the EU meet at summits called European
Councils to define the general political guidelines of the EU (don't
confuse this group with the Council
of Europe, which is a separate organization!).

The European
Commission is composed of 25 members. The Commission proposes legislation,
has responsibility for implementing the treaties and oversees
the EU budget.

The Court of Justice (ECJ), which sits in Luxembourg, is responsible for interpreting and applying EU law. It also issues advisory opinions interpreting the law of the EU to national courts. The 25 judges of the ECJ are assisted by eight Advocates-General who present impartial opinions on issues of law and procedure to help the Court come to a decision. The Court of First Instance (CFI) was established by in 1988 to lessen the ECJ's caseload by hearing certain types of cases (e.g. employment disputes). Its decisions are appealable to the ECJ on points of law only. The ECJ website includes texts of recent opinions (of both the ECJ and the CFI), press releases, and general information about the court. Numerical access to the case-law provides the texts of opinions of the ECJ from 1953 and the CFI from 1989.

Reports of Cases Before the Court of Justice and the Court of First
Instance (usually referred to as European Court Reports or ECR)
is the official publication of the ECJ. It includes judgments, interim
orders, submissions (opinions) of Advocates-General, etc., published in
chronological order with yearly indexes.

ECJ cases from1954 and Court of First Instance cases from1989 are available
online in
the subscription databases
LexisNexis (EURCOM;CASES) and Westlaw (EU-CS). These databases
also include Advocate-General opinions.

Established in 1977, the Court of Auditors, whose 25 members are experienced in the audit of public finances, is charged with making sure that the EU budget has been managed effectively, and reporting to the citizens of Europe on the use made of public funds.

The EU system includes other important bodies.

The European Economic and Social Committee is a 222 member consultative body representing groups such as farmers, consumers, and environmentalists; it advises the European Parliament, Council and Commission on a variety of issues such as agriculture and industry.

The Committee of the Regions was created by the Maastricht Treaty of 1991 to give local and regional authorities a voice when proposals are made in areas which have repercussions at regional or local level (such as health, education, employment policy, and the environment).

The European Central Bank and the national central banks of the EU member states make up the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) (the “Eurosystem”) which works to maintain price stability, support the economic policies in the EU and act in accordance with the principles of an open market economy. One if its most important tasks is to implement the monetary policy of the Euro area.

The European Ombudsman investigates complaints by citizens of EU member states of administrative irregularities (such as discrimination, abuse of power or unnecessary delay) by bodies of the European Community.

Research Tip: The
Activities section of the EU
website provides an overview of the activities of the EU bodies organized
by subject (such as agriculture, the environment and trade), along with links
to documents.

The European Union in its present form came into existence in November 1993
after the ratification of the Treaty
on European Union (or Maastricht Treaty). The Treaty
of Amsterdam, which entered into force on May 1, 1999, amended and renumbered
the EU and EC Treaties. The Treaty
of Nice amends the existing treaties to prepare for the expansion of
the EU. In June 2004, EU leaders reached agreement on
the controversial Constitutional
Treaty for Europe.

Selected
treaties are available on the EU web site in Treaties and the Law > and as part of EUR-Lex. Treaties from 1951- on are
available
the subscription databases LexisNexis
(EUROPE; TREATY) and Westlaw (EU-TREATIES).

EU treaties are published in the Official Journal and in numerous other sources which are available in many college, university and law school libraries, including the Encyclopedia of European Union Law, the European Union Law Reporter and International Legal Materials.